Lee Sharpe, his mates and the £225 tipple...

Jan 14 2008 by Terry George, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE ex-footballer turned Celebrity Love Island canoodler, turned ice dancer Lee Sharpe and me go back a long way.

I first met him when I was the resident DJ at Discotheque Royale in Manchester – the club’s still there but it’s changed its name now – and I helped him to host a fan club event.

He was at the peak of his popularity as a Manchester United star and he’d organised an afternoon disco for his young fans and their mums and dads. Well, the place was heaving, with loads more devotees outside, scrambling for tickets. It was an unbelievable sight.

Lee, who lives in Leeds now, was charm personified, confident and friendly with no touch of arrogance. He signed books, shirts and whatever else the masses – mainly teenage girls – brought forward for his endorsement.

A couple of years later I helped him out of a tight spot in a nightclub in Nottingham where I ran a night. He and his mates were causing a bit of low-level trouble in the VIP area and the management muscled in and wanted him to leave.

Lee had brought this on himself – because he’d been having a laugh pouring beer into the hood of a top worn by an unsuspecting girl. Only when she noticed she started kicking up a stink. Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

I smoothed things over with her and the club bosses so that Lee could carry on enjoying his evening without any more mischief.

It’s strange I was talking about celebrity ice dancing in last week’s column, because that’s the arena – literally – in which Lee’s had his most recent athletic acclaim. I was a big fan of his performance in the ITV show, but I hadn’t seen him recently.

So I was surprised when he rang to say hello. He and I had a catch-up when he brought 10 of his mates down to my bar, Fibre. He mentioned the whole beer-hood incident of years ago, which I’d totally forgotten, and his friends thought it was a hilarious story. I wonder where that girl is now? We don’t know but she’s probably not wearing hoodies any more.

Between them they got through four bottles of Cristal Champagne which isn’t cheap at about £225 a bottle. Lee, who has a long-term girlfriend, talked about Celebrity Love Island and confided that he thought co-castaway Abi Titmuss was “a bit bonkers” and spoke enthusiastically about his love of getting his ice skates on.

He says far more people have recognised him since he’s been on those kind of prime time TV shows than they ever did when he was at the height of his soccer powers. The might of TV, eh? He’d seen me on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire and loved it.

Lee and his mates stayed all night at Fibre but I’m happy to say he didn’t try to tip any alcohol down anyone’s hood. There might be two reasons for that ... one, people dress to impress at Fibre and don’t slouch around in hoodies, and two, Cristal’s a bit expensive to be pouring anywhere except your mouth!

We’ll have the bill please!

EVERYONE’S been talking about the new Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill that includes a new offence of incitement to hatred on grounds of sexual orientation.

Sounds like good news for the gay community and extra back-up in cases of homophobia. But not everyone supports it.

Ann Widdecombe is one of a small group of Christian MPs who think they should be allowed to pass opinion on other people’s lifestyles and want an amendment to that effect.

Yet if I started opining about what Ann Widdecombe gets up to in her free time you’d rightly think: “Yeah but that’s none of your business, Terry.”